James Bond most likely springs to mind when people think about the spy genre. Bond’s escapades are mission-oriented – find out who is behind the scheme and take care of it before the bad guy takes over the world. Only rarely does a Bond story look past the plot and into the operative himself. What makes him tick? What in his past made him this way? The Daniel Craig Bond films lifted the lid on the psyche lurking beneath the coarse exterior in ways the Sean Connery era never considered. Red Sparrow is more Daniel Craig than Sean Connery. It is a character story following the outline of a spy film. Trained in the art of sexual seduction at the Russian sparrow school, Dominika Egorova learns people are puzzles. You must become the missing piece, fit in and become what they need, then they will give you everything. Perhaps what Dominika learns best is that her only value – to her uncle, to the sparrow school, and to the Russian state, is her vagina.

Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers) transforms from a Bolshoi prima ballerina into a cunning, ambitious, and cold technician. She was already disciplined; ballet's upper echelons requires this trait. Forced into a covert intelligence program and trained to use her body as a conduit, Dominika is assigned to CIA operative Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton, It Comes at Night). So begins Red Sparrow’s deception. The script and direction deceive the audience, the characters deceive one another, and the concept of trust is non-existent; someone must always play an angle. Dominika and Nate are attracted to one another, but how can you progress with someone when you’re trying to trick them? These two agents are nobody’s fool and recognize they are each being played, but should that stop the romance?

Check out the casting. American Jennifer Lawrence plays a Russian speaking thickly-accented English and Australian Joel Edgerton plays true-blue American. Red Sparrow would jump up a full notch if the Russians actually spoke Russian, but I understand Hollywood execs are in the business of making money off their products. They will reap the benefits all day long having Jennifer Lawrence in their picture if all they must sacrifice are believability points. Justin Haythe, adapting the script from real-life CIA source handler Justin Matthews’s 2013 novel, spins a smart, well thought out, layered, and very dark world for Dominika to navigate. Haythe intrigued me in the past with A Cure for Wellness, an experiment more bold than coherent, but has also played it safe with Snitch and The Lone Ranger. Red Sparrow shows he is improving.

Nobody would know better than Justin Matthews how dark the inside of the espionage world can be. After his more than three decades inside the CIA, Matthews depicts an icy relationship between the U.S. and Russia and a world where the Cold War never stopped. The sparrow school’s matron (Charlotte Rampling, The Mill and the Cross) says as much during her introduction and we can only imagine what charades she pulled off in the past to make her into the ice cold automaton she is. What turns out to be great storytelling and makes us lean forward in our seats is we are never sure who is working for what. Until some big reveals, your guess is as good as anyone else’s who is telling the truth and who is lying. When the audience is in a maze, they pay attention.

While Dominika is learning what her boundaries are as a spy and how far she is willing to go, Nate Nash comes off as a regular Joe nice guy. He has solid ethics, prioritizes protecting his source as number one, but falling for a Russian spy is most likely frowned upon in the CIA playbook. Using his inside source as leverage, Nash earns a second chance to come back after an early mistake nearly exposes everything and everyone. Nash and Dominika are not Jason Bourne spies. They work in incredibly violent and dangerous circumstances, but they do it through daily work life motions. While Nash’s motivation is love of country and most likely the thrill of the spy lifestyle, Dominika’s is as personal as it gets.

Dominika’s life takes a massive turn downward and she is checkmated into going to sparrow school by her Uncle Vanya, the SVR Deputy Director (Matthias Schoenaerts, The Danish Girl). Uncle Vanya is so dyed in the wool corrupt he believes his own lies. On one hand, Dominika’s well-being concerns him; but on the other, he recognizes her femininity and the always precarious position elite apparatchiks occupy in the Russian kill or be killed bureaucracy. Vanya believes he can trust blood and sets up a situation where he needs Dominika and she needs him just as much. Some uncle though. Vanya knows all too well what Dominika is about to experience at sparrow school. She is raped, stripped naked multiple times, tied up, and tortured.

It is too easy to compare Red Sparrow to something like Atomic Blonde. That Berlin-based spy story had a particular level of comic book action, but similar themes where the lead female gets relentlessly pummeled. Dominika is used and abused, to the point where we start to question how much spy movies lately enjoy depicting female debasement. However, Dominika remembers everything, learns, grows, and moves the vector from subjugation to perhaps empowerment. Red Sparrow is not as tight as I expected; I guessed the film’s biggest secret very early and you may as well. However, Jennifer Lawrence commands your attention. Her character is fascinating and the slick cat and mouse game of spy vs. spy make for a very enjoyable time at the theater. ​